Vanessa Beecroft

The Brooklyn Museum has named David Berliner president and chief operating officer. Given the museum’s PR problem with accusations of being pro-developer (and by extension, pro-gentrification) this is an odd choice. Berliner served previously as the chief operating officer of Forest City Ratner Companies, the developers who controversially created Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park using eminent domain to displace residents. [ARTnews]

Wow. Kanye West and Vanessa Beecroft can’t seem to stop doing controversial/dumb things. For their latest collaboration, they left models (“multi-racial women only”) standing for hours in the blistering sun on Roosevelt Island for so long that several women fainted and audience members (not production crew) felt so bad that they brought them bottles of water. Why? According to Beecroft, “The long wait before, I believe it was planned because [West] wanted the audience to get into this state of having to observe and having to stay.” [artnet News]

As New York rents skyrocket, in conjunction with higher labor and food costs, the city is hemorrhaging restaurants. Chefs are instead heading to midwestern cities to open places that can afford a “neighborhood” feel or culinary risk-taking. Meanwhile, landlords are ending up with vacant retail space or some combination of banks and Duane Reade locations. [Food Republic]

This post’s title-“Time to Let People Decide if 9/11 Sculpture is Art or Exploitation”-is pure click bait but the post isn’t. Reading through the article we watch the writer cite her own past criticisms of Eric Fischl’s sculpture back in 2002, Eric Fischl’s response years later and her reassessment of her position now. It’s rare to see that kind of bravery in writers. [The New York Post]

In other WTC news, a design has at last been chosen for the complex’s performing arts center. The winning proposal comes from Brooklyn-based firm REX, headed by former OMA architect Joshua Prince-Ramus (who spearheaded the famed Seattle Central Library alongside Rem Koolhaas). It’s a translucent marble box that slightly recalls OMA’s Casa da Musica, or perhaps I.M. Pei’s East Gallery. Those buildings are successful because they feel sturdy, timeless, and permanent yet lightweight and welcoming (as opposed to the 1 World Trade Center tower) and the performing arts center looks to hit those same notes. [Curbed]

It only took three weeks for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Councilman Jimmy Van Bremer to sit down for the meeting de Blasio promised in their latest skirmish over affordable housing, but it happened. Van Bremer has not backed down on his position that the so-called affordable housing at Phipps House slated for Queens is not a good idea. Now, a coalition of nearly a dozen community and arts organizations (Art F City included) will hold a summit on Sunday, Sept. 18, to discuss the Phipps Houses plan, the overdevelopment of western Queens and the SBJSA. [Times Ledger]

Not so sure about the photos on this site, but what the hell: YaPhoto is a new photography platform that’s launched in Cameroon with the mission of promoting an emerging community of Cameroonian photographers. [YaPhoto]

Art Basel has announced Buenos Aires as its first partner in the vaguely-defined Art Basel Cities Initiative. This is intended to “develop a program of cultural events designed to celebrate the city’s vibrant arts scene and raise its profile in the international art world as part of its economic development.” [Miami Herald]

We’ve never heard Joan Semmel’s theory that feminism comes into fashion when the market is down, because women’s art is less expensive. We’re not sure how this theory follows the rules of supply and demand. Art market experts, is this true? Anyway, an interview with painter and feminist Joan Semmel. [Hyperallergic]

We were going to write a blog post titled “Vanessa Beecroft is the Rachel Dolezal of the Art World” and then realized what an unfair comparison that is. Beecroft’s appropriations of blackness are so, so much worse. This is not a post about stupid things someone has said once, twice, or in the case of Beecroft, many, many times. This is a post about how systemic racism cannot be wished away: “If I don’t call myself white, maybe I am not,” says Beecroft in “The Bodies Artist,” a profile published online today on the Cut.

A Chagall inspired fan art rendering of Barack Obama we found randomly on the web yesterday

Planners of Brooklyn’s future streetcar can look to New Jersey for lessons in what does and doesn’t work in the realm of surface transit. Long story short: trains are good. Trains running in mixed traffic with cars are bad. [The New York Times]

Italian businessman Renato Bialetti made a fortune from the iconic Moka coffee pot—a 20th Century design classic. Fittingly, he was just cremated and buried in one. [Quartz]

In other appliance news: Matmos has released a single-track album comprising manipulated sounds from their washing machine. And they’re taking their washing machine on tour. [Artforum]

Pixelated motels, digitally-printed blankets, and an alternative biography of mad artist Frenhofer are some of the fetish-inspired pieces at Springsteen Gallery’s exhibition Ready to Drop from Bradford Kessler, Body by Body and Erin Jane Nelson. This looks so good. [FLuXO]

Here’s a guide to the infuriating process of applying for a US artist visa. Some highlights: “It can take as little as 10 days and up to six months to approve the application. But to expedite it, you can pay an additional fee and expect to hear back within 15 days. But that will cost you an additional $1,225, plus the regular filing fee of $325” and “The people who are actually looking are not in the arts industry. So they might apply arbitrary standards… Well-known shows like ‘America’s Got Talent’ or ‘American Idol’ can make a difference, even if you didn’t make it as a finalist. It’s the name value that counts. ‘They see Chris Brown and Rihanna and that raises the approvability, even if they are a minor background dancer. If you can show that you have associated yourself with big names in the mainstream, you are better off than if you have played a bigger role in a no-name production.’” [Blouin Artinfo]

Editor’s note: I recall the first words of my lawyer when I spoke to him about the process of applying for a green card. “Think of it, like buying a car.” he told me. What went unsaid, of course, was that unlike a car, which you can drive out of the dealership as soon as you’ve put some money down, there’s no guarantee spending money on a green card will get it approved. It’s at least a year of living in fear.

New York City is looking to use many of the vacant lots it owns as plots for affordable housing. According to the audit there are 1,131 lots to be assessed and they could add as many as 57,000 units to the city. Many of these plots have issues—flooding, inadequate access to public transportation, etc, but it’s still a step in the right direction, at least in theory. [Curbed]

Related news: de Blasio’s rezoning plan to create more “affordable” housing units will be disastrous for the city’s poorest residents. “84 percent of residents in East New York—the first neighborhood to be rezoned under the city’s proposal—will be unable to afford the market rate housing units proposed under the rezoning, and 55 percent will be unable to afford the “affordable units” based on the proposal’s income requirements.” [In These Times]

A look at some crazy modern home designs that were never built. [Hyperallergic]

Vanessa Beecroft has left the art world entirely to create work for and with Kanye West. Nate Freeman thinks her work is better for it, because the work needs “someone like Kanye”. Not sure what those qualities are, but the article is a good read regardless, because for once Beecroft doesn’t read like an insufferable narcissist oblivious to her own racism. [Artnews]

Artists and gallerists participating in Material Art Fair were given disposable cameras to document their experiences. The results? Evidence that everyone was partying much harder than we were! [VICE]

Chances are you’ve seen a picture of Ariane—the ubiquitous, ethnically ambiguous stock photo model known for her smile and cult following—at least once today. Now, read about her life and fitness regime. [Women’s Running]